The inquiry set up to investigate intelligence on weapons of mass destruction will meet in private, it has been announced.

The Butler Inquiry said it would meet behind closed doors to avoid giving a partial or distorted public impression of the evidence.

It will start taking evidence in April and is likely to report by the summer.

The committee met on Wednesday to discuss its inquiry which will look at the accuracy of intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

In a statement last night the committee said it would not discuss its work before it published its final report.

It intends to report before the summer parliamentary recess. Unlike the Hutton Inquiry, it will focus principally on structures, systems and processes rather than on the actions of individuals.

* FORMER US weapons inspector David Kay is advising President George Bush to acknowledge he was wrong about hidden storehouses of weapons in Iraq and move ahead with overhauling the intelligence process.

Kay said the "serious burden of evidence" suggests Saddam Hussein did not have caches of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons at the beginning of the Iraqi war, but was engaged in developing missiles.